Longing for a 'Better Life' in Death

Tom Morgan made a difficult decision to help end his father's life — then looked forward to his own death

And it's time again for StoryCorps traveling the country, recording people talking about their lives. Tom Morgan told his story in Murray Kentucky. He came to the StoryCorps with his friend Tracy Ross. Tom Morgan was 69 years old at that time and suffering from emphysema. His health was failing. And here he remembers his father.

My father was James Blain Morgan, and everybody called him BG, I don't know where the nickname came from. Everybody in town had known those stories about my daddy. If I went to a lunch, I went to coffee, I got a BG story. And my father was probably the finest man I ever met in my life. He was the kind of father I wish I could've been to my son. The saddest day in my life was the day my father died. My father was in intensive care. He was on machines. And the doctor came along and says, “We can keep him alive. We may get him back out of this, we may not." But my dad was a logger and there was an old statement, "If the lead team can't pull the wagon, don't hitch it up". And I look at him and I said, “That's his statement, that's my statement. Unplug the man. Let him die with dignity.” If he makes it, fine. If he doesn't, at least let him die with dignity. That haunted me for 5 years, I woke up in the middle of the night, when there're lightning, and just cold sweat. My ex-wife just reached out and touched me, she said, “BG is dead. Go back to sleep.”

You wear oxygen mask now.

I do.

So all have been very very lately that's happened.(Yeah)

Are you afraid of death?

I look forward to death.

Why?

[It's]A matter of curiosity. I just think there will be a better life.

Do you have any regrets at all?

I can pick out a dozen of problems to you. But I've always had the theory that if you don't try it, when you go to the grave you’ll say I could have. When I die, I would go to the grave and say, “I did. I might not have done it well but I did it.”

This Tom Morgan with his friend Tracy Ross in Murray, Kentucky. Mr. Morgan died earlier this year.

This interview like all StoryCorps interviews will be archived at the American Folk Life Center at the Library of Congress. And you can subscribe to this project’s podcast simply by going to npr.org.

Support for SotryCorps comes from at & t with additional funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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